Editing Nicholas Herkimer

{{Short description|American military officer (1728–1777)}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Nicholas Herkimer
| image         = Herkimer at oriskany.jpg
| caption       = Herkimer at the [[Battle of Oriskany]]
| birth_date    = {{circa|1728}}
| death_date    = August 16, 1777 (aged 48–49)
| birth_place   = [[German Flatts, New York]]
| death_place   = German Flatts, New York
| allegiance    = {{flagcountry|Great Britain}}<br />{{flagcountry|US|1777}}
| branch        = [[New York Army National Guard|New York Militia]]
| rank          = [[Brigadier-General]]
| battles       = {{tree list}}
* [[French and Indian War]]
** [[Attack on German Flatts (1757)|Battle of German Flatts]]
* [[American Revolutionary War]]
** [[Battle of Oriskany]]{{DOW}}
{{tree list/end}}
}}

[[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier-General]] '''Nicholas Herkimer''' (also known as '''Nikolaus Herchheimer''';<!-- look the de.wp--> {{circa|1728}} – August 16, 1777) was an American military officer who fought during the [[French and Indian War]] and [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]]. He died in 1777 from wounds suffered during the [[Battle of Oriskany]].<ref name="battlefields.org/learn/biographies/nicholas-herkimer">Nicholas Herkimer battlefields.org</ref> 

==Early life and career==

Herkimer was born in the vicinity of [[German Flatts, New York|German Flatts]] in the [[Mohawk River|Mohawk Valley]] of the [[Province of New York]], and was the elder brother of [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] officer [[Johan Jost Herkimer]]. Their parents were Catherine Petri and Johann Jost Herchheimer, a son of the [[Palatines|Palatine]] immigrant Georg Herchheimer or Hirchemer from [[Sandhausen]] in the parish of [[Leimen (Baden)|Leimen]] south of [[Heidelberg]].<ref>[[Henry Z Jones, Jr.|Jones, Henry Z, Jr.]], ''The Palatine Families of New York 1710''; Universal City, California. 1985, Vol. 1, p. 388-390.</ref> Nicholas was of slender build, with a dark complexion and black hair; he was not quite six feet tall. He could speak German, English and Mohawk. 

During the [[Attack on German Flatts (1757)|attack on German Flatts]] in the [[French and Indian War]], he was involved in its defense. He was made a captain in the [[New York Army National Guard|New York Militia]] on January 5, 1758, and repelled a second attack on German Flatts in April of that year. He built his new house in 1764 on the south shore of the Mohawk River, near the falls and the present-day city of [[Little Falls (city), New York|Little Falls]]; the estate was attended by Irish indentured servants and slaves.<ref>Falk, Cynthia G. "Forts, Rum, Slaves, and the Herkimer's Rise to Power in the Mohawk Valley," ''New York History'', 89 (Summer 2008), 221–34.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-08-22 |title=Slavery In The Mohawk Valley Event Thursday - New York Almanack |url=https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2017/08/slavery-in-the-mohawk-valley-event-thursday/ |access-date=2023-08-11 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="paulaboehlert">{{cite book |title=The Battle of Oriskany and General Nicholas Herkimer: Revolution in the Mohawk Valley|author=Paul A Boehlert|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2013|pages=163}}</ref> Herkimer joined the [[Scottish Rite Freemasonry]], being initiated in the St. Patrick's Lodge in [[Johnstown, New York]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.matawanlodge.org/famous.htm | title = U.S. Famous Freemasons | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080510153526/http://www.matawanlodge.org/famous.htm | archive-date = May 10, 2008 | url-status = usurped}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://mastermason.com/PGH32/famousmasons.html | title = Famous Master Mason | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160104173702/http://mastermason.com/PGH32/famousmasons.html | archive-date = Jan 4, 2016 | url-status = live}}</ref>

==American Revolution==

In July and August 1775, Herkimer headed the [[Tryon County Committee of Safety]], and became colonel of the [[Tryon County militia]]. After the split in which Loyalist militiamen from the area withdrew to Canada, he was commissioned a brigadier-general in the county militia by the Provincial Congress on September 5, 1776. In June 1776, he led 380 men of the Tryon County militia to meet with the Mohawk chief [[Joseph Brant]] at [[Unadilla, New York]].  Herkimer asked the Mohawk and five other [[Iroquois]] nations to remain neutral, while Brant countered that the Indians owed their loyalty to [[George III]].

When Herkimer learned of the British siege of [[Fort Stanwix|Fort Schuyler]] to the west in late July 1777, he ordered the Tryon County militia to assemble at [[Fort Dayton]].  He marched them out to Fort Schuyler, about 28 miles to the west. His force marching in column was ambushed on August 6 by a mixed force of Loyalist and Hessian regulars and Indian warriors in the [[Battle of Oriskany]]. Herkimer's horse was shot, and he was seriously wounded in the leg. It is alleged that, in spite of his injuries, he sat propped up against a tree, lit his pipe, and directed his men in the battle,<ref name="battlefields.org/learn/biographies/nicholas-herkimer">Nicholas Herkimer battlefields.org</ref> rallying them to avoid two panicked retreats. When they withdrew, they carried him home.

The brigade surgeon, William Petrie, dressed Herkimer's wound in the field and placed him on a litter. The wound quickly became infected, but the decision to amputate the leg was delayed for about ten days after the battle. The operation was performed by an inexperienced surgeon, Robert Johnson, because Petrie had also been wounded in the battle and was not available. The operation went poorly, the wound bled profusely, and Herkimer died of the injury on August 16, at around the age of 49.

==Legacy==
[[File:General Herkimer Monument, Myers Park Herkimer NY.jpg|thumb|right|A bronze statue of Herkimer was erected in 1907 in Myers Park in [[Herkimer (village), New York|Herkimer, New York]]]]
Herkimer's home, in what is now [[Little Falls, New York]], is preserved as the [[Herkimer Home State Historic Site]]. [[Herkimer County, New York]] was named in his honor.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n154 155]}}</ref> His nephew, [[John Herkimer]], later became a U.S. Congressman. A street in the Bronx, [[New York City]], is named in his honor (Herkimer Place).<ref>{{cite book |last=McNamara |first=John |author-link= |date=1991 |title=''History in Asphalt'' |url= |location=Harrison, NY |publisher=: Harbor Hill Books |page=128 |isbn=0-941980-15-4}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
* [[Roger Imhof]] portrays Herkimer in the 1939 film ''[[Drums Along the Mohawk]]'', directed by John Ford. It is based on the 1936 historical novel by [[Walter D. Edmonds]] of [[Drums Along the Mohawk (novel)|the same name]], about the [[Colonial history of the United States|Colonial]] era, settlements in the valley, and the [[American Revolutionary War]].

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

'''Further reading'''
* Foote, Allan D., "Liberty March - The Battle of Oriskany," North Country Books Inc., Utica, New York, 1998

==External links==
{{commons category|Nicholas Herkimer}}
*[http://www.littlefallsny.com/HerkimerHome/Page1.htm ''Herkimer Home State Historical Site'']
*{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Herkimer, Nicholas|year=1892 |short=x |notaref=x}}
*{{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Herkimer, Nicholas}}
*{{Find a Grave|9165}}

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{{Herkimer County, New York}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herkimer, Nicholas}}
[[Category:1720s births]]
[[Category:1777 deaths]]
[[Category:American people of German descent]]
[[Category:British America army officers]]
[[Category:German Palatines]]
[[Category:Herkimer County, New York]]
[[Category:Militia generals in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:New York (state) militiamen in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:People from German Flatts, New York]]
[[Category:People of New York in the French and Indian War]]
[[Category:United States military personnel killed in the American Revolutionary War]]
[[Category:Slave owners from the Thirteen Colonies]]